Sunday\u2019s win was important for BU, but what happened off the court made it special.<\/p>\n
The school raised nearly $7,000 from its seventh annual Pink Zone game. Of the funds raised, $1,500 came from specialized donations and the rest from $25 pledges for each 3-pointer hit by the Braves.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great atmosphere,\u201d said Bradley athletics director Michael Cross, who was in attendance for his first Pink Zone game since coming to Bradley in January.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think its a tremendous organizational effort on the part of coach Buscher and her team … to unify everybody around a really important cause.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Braves hit two of their six 3-pointers in the first half, and trailed 28-26 at the break after committing 15 turnovers.<\/p>\n
Turnovers have been a problem for Bradley all season. The Braves are averaging 21 a game.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the times that we were turning the ball over we weren\u2019t as composed as we needed to be,\u201d Buscher said. \u201cWe weren\u2019t as confident as we needed to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Buscher didn\u2019t like how her team performed in the first half, the coach said she was glad the team was able to hang around enough to keep it close.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur defensive intensity in the first half wasn\u2019t where I wanted it to be,\u201d she said. \u201cI thought Drake came out to start the game as the aggressors and I didn\u2019t think we matched that aggressiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Braves came out firing in the second half.<\/p>\n
Sonya Harris scored the first points of the half to tie the game at 38-38. Drake (13-11, 6-8) answered before Bradley went on a 24-9 spurt to go up 52-39.<\/p>\n
Renee Frericks, who hit five threes in last season\u2019s Pink Zone game, had three 3-pointers in the stretch.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just came out and did what my team needed,\u201d said the senior, who scored nine. \u201cI got some open looks and I was able to drop them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Braves were 6-of-23 from long range in the game, which is tied for the third-most attempts by the team this season.<\/p>\n
Buscher, who pledged $25 for each 3-pointer her team made, said the Pink Zone had no effect on her game plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got some shooters and when they\u2019re in there and when they\u2019re open they\u2019re going to go ahead and let it fly,\u201d she said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t have anything to do with that, but I am more than glad to pay up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Freshman Katie Yohn had two 3-pointers for the Braves, and finished with a team-high 16 points. Hanna Muegge had one three.<\/p>\n
Drake\u2019s Kristin Turk, who scored the Bulldogs\u2019 first eight of the game, finished with 22.<\/p>\n
The Braves win \u2014 and a loss later Sunday by Creighton (15-9, 10-5) \u2014 put Bradley alone in second place in the MVC.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis weekend was very big,\u201d Frericks said. \u201cIt was a huge positioning game. It keep us in the hunt for one of those top two spots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alex Mayster can be reached at 686-3214 or amayster@pjstar.com<\/em> Read the original article from Journal Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services<\/a><\/p>\n Every time Bradley and Drake have gotten together lately, something special has happened. On Sunday, the Braves women\u2019s basketball team defeated the Bulldogs, 63-55, hitting 9-of-10 free throws to close out the game. \u201cFree throws are huge,\u201d Bradley coach Paula Buscher said. \u201cYou knock down those free throws, it changes possessions. \u201cYou don\u2019t knock down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-347619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347619\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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